


The Riott House

by AttackPlatypus



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternate Universe - Prohibition Era, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:00:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22385278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AttackPlatypus/pseuds/AttackPlatypus
Summary: Ruby Riott owns an illegal speakeasy where she employs Sarah Logan as a bouncer and Liv Morgan as a singer.But can she keep it?
Comments: 8
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ahunter8056](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ahunter8056/gifts), [RelentlassHuggerSquad](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RelentlassHuggerSquad/gifts).



> A very happy birthday to my bro the tremendously talented ahunter8056!
> 
> It is my distinct privilege to know you sir and it is an honor to share this website with you!

“Hey, Rue, Ms. Dale is here.”

Ruby suppressed a sigh as she set down the glass she was cleaning. Just in time to see the dark-haired woman stepping carefully down the stairs that led to the Riott House. The small speakeasy was Ruby’s pride and joy, indeed it was almost her whole life. So when a daughter of Hunter City’s biggest mobster walked in, she was on edge.

Because it was just past noon, Ruby was dressed far more casually then she would be when the speakeasy opened that evening. A white blouse with a grey knitted vest and slacks, the whole look finished with one unorthodox accessory: an underarm holster holding an ancient-looking revolver. 

By contrast, Carmella Dale was dressed as though she might have to go to a ball the moment she left Ruby’s place. Beaded dress with silk gloves and a headscarf. She approached the bar with a look one might wear if you smelled something unpleasant. Ruby kept a smile fixed firmly in place, cognisant of the fact that she was dealing with the equivalent of criminal royalty. 

“Good afternoon, Ms. Dale,” she said. Carmella, for her part, continued to look around the taproom with an air of distaste. Taking advantage of this inattention, Ruby caught the eye of Sarah Logan over Carmella’s shoulder. Sarah was one of Ruby’s employees, at the moment she was bringing in a keg but when the speakeasy was open she acted as the bouncer. The nod was an agreed signal between the two of them, it meant that Sarah should keep an eye on Camella and her bodyguards.

“Hmm…” Carmella finally said “...My daddy told me about this place. Do you make much money?” 

Ruby was taken aback by the question and it took a moment to weigh all its possible significance. “I do...alright…” she said cautiously.

“Good, I’m buying it from you,” Carmella announced as she held out a hand. One of her guards placed a thin black book in it that Ruby assumed contained checks. 

“Uh, I’m sorry Ms. Dale but I’m not looking to sell,” Ruby said politely, but firmly.

Carmella narrowed her eyes in response. “You’ll sell to me,” she said petulantly. Childish as she sounded, Ruby knew she was right. It didn’t much matter what Ruby wanted, this was the daughter of the  _ Capo di tutti i capi,  _ if Ruby refused to sell then it was likely she’d just have the place taken from her. And get a bullet in her head as well as those of her staff for her trouble.

Ruby wouldn’t give up her place, not without a fight. But she needed a plan. Fortunately, she had one up her sleeve. She’d never used it for stakes like this before, but she didn’t see why it couldn’t work. And the key to making it success had just walked in through the rear entrance. This made Ruby smile internally, always nice to have an ace up your sleeve. 

Liv Morgan was Ruby’s singer and hostess for the evenings when her bar was open. The diminutive blonde had the voice of an angel but the heart of a scamp. Ruby liked to think that she was more clever than the average person, but her deviousness was nothing on Liv’s. The only thing that kept her from worrying that Liv would scheme her right out of the bar was that Liv seemed perfectly happy where she was. 

“What if I offered you a chance to get it for free?” Ruby suggested as she made a show of cleaning another glass. Even someone as determinately bored as Carmella couldn’t fail to sit up at this. 

“What do you mean?” she asked with eyes narrowed in suspicion. Rather than answer directly, Ruby changed the subject.

“I understand you like to play a hand or two?” she asked mildly. This was vastly understating things, Carmella had a reputation for being a true card shark. It was sometimes joked that she made more from the tables then her father did on any of his rackets. Carmella didn’t answer the question, but Ruby could tell she had the other woman’s attention.

“You win, you get the place for free. I win, I get to keep it but you drink free here,” Ruby said, looking Carmella square in the eye. She knew she’d won when the smug triumph blossomed on the other woman’s face. She was certain that she would be the owner of the place in no time. “By the way, you wouldn’t mind if Liv does a warm-up of her performance for later would you? If she’s working for you then you’ll want her at her best.”

“Sure sure, let’s play,” Carmella said impatiently. In no time at all, she and Ruby were sitting in the center of the room. They were the only ones at the table, Carmella having ordered her guards to wait at the bar. Ruby cut the deck and was dealing when Liv began to rehearse. It was her habit when performing to walk among the tables, and she was doing it now. She had just walked from the bar and past Carmella when she sang.

“ _ A club to my heart, for so long _ ….”

Ruby had to fight to keep from smirking.

  
  



	2. Flames of Ambition and Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ruby's speakeasy is threatened once again, can the squad come through with a plan?

Ruby Riott knew she was in trouble as soon as the door to her speakeasy opened.

“Alright, nobody do anything stupid. Hands up!” a booming voice called. Almost before Ruby could begin to process what she had heard people began flooding into her bar. People wearing long blue coats with a double row of buttons. Cops.

Letting out a deep sigh, Ruby slowly raised her hands. Across the room, she saw Sarah doing the same thing. A moment later both of them had their guns taken away from them. Ruby then had her chest and face forcibly driven onto the top of her bar by a pair of cops. She couldn’t see it happening, but a sound from across the room told her that Sarah was receiving similar treatment.

“What the hell is this?” Ruby demanded angrily. She shut up when one of the cops holding her arms responded by pressing her face painfully down into the bar. Ruby wasn’t a large woman and this particular cop’s hand almost engulfed her whole skull.

“Ruby Doreen Riott…” an all too familiar voice said from somewhere to Ruby’s left. She let out both and inward and outward sigh. She didn’t have to wait long before she was hauled upward and her arms were pinned to the wall behind the bar. This new perspective allowed her to look up into the smug sneering face of Police Captain Baron Corbin.

“Captain Corbin,” Ruby said sourly as she felt some blood trickling from her nose. “How nice to see you, get you a drink?”

Corbin put a face of mock shock and indignation. “Did you, a lowly criminal, just attempt to offer me, an officer of the law, a bribe?” Corbin’s men all guffawed at this response. “Prohibition is the law of the land, Ms. Riott,” Corbin said in a lecturing tone.

“Must have been someone else that I had in here last weekend then…” Ruby muttered. Her smart mouth earned her a punch to the stomach that folded her over. She ended up all fours retching and gasping.

“Watch that mouth, girl…” Corbin snapped. A moment later his smug tone returned, “But...as long as I’m here…” Ruby gave one last heave before she heard the sound of Corbin opened himself a bottle of illicit beer.

Ruby took a few seconds to collect herself, one hand clutched to her gut. “I’m paid up, Corbin. What is this?” When she was finally able to look up, she had to watch as Corbin finished his beer and then casually thew his bottle into a mirror on the wall, shattering both.

“Nia Jax paid more,” Corbin said with a shrug as helped himself to another beer. Ruby stewed in something silent fury. Nia Jax was a too bit street bully who suffered from severe delusions of grandeur. A nobody who thought she was a really big somebody.

“So what? Are you going to toss the place now?” Ruby grunted as she was finally able to reach a kneeling position. 

“I would but Jax wants to take over this dump and, as I said, she paid more,” Corbin shrugged. He finished his second beer and tossed the bottle over his shoulder. 

“Gee, thanks,” Ruby muttered.

“I do hope you stick around though…” Corbin said as she stood from the bar and adjusted his belt. “Jax will be by in an hour or so, and if you’re here I can let you two bitches take care of each for me.” With that, he signaled to his men and they began to leave. As they went the knocked over chairs and tables and broke several of the light fixtures.

When they were gone, Sarah hurried over to Ruby to check on her. “Things are going to get worse for us if he ends up being chief,” she muttered as she dabbed at the blood on Ruby’s face.

“Which, he probably will…” Ruby grunted. It was true, Corbin was a climber in the department and everyone assumed he would take over for the former chief when he retired. And give the age of the incumbent, that couldn’t be far off.

“So...what are we going to do?” Sarah asked. Ruby was struck by the tone of uncomplicated confidence in her friend’s voice. Sarah assumed that Ruby would get them all out of this like she always had before. 

She was correct.

* * *

“We don’t have much time…” Ruby grunted as she stood and reached under the bar for a violin case she kept there. Handing the oddly heavy case to her friend she dug in her vest pocket and offered a set of keys. “You know where she’s holed up, go take care of it.”

“No problem,” Sarah said with a grin as she took the case.

“And call Liv before you go, I need to talk to her right away,” Ruby said as she opened the icebox behind the bar to get herself ice. 

  
  


Captain Baron Corbin was having a wonderful day. 

Between the money he’d received from Nia Jax and the payments he’d been taking from Ruby Riott, he now had enough to buy a new car. And, when he went back the next day to arrest both of them he would have a big flashy feather in his cap for the press. Not an unimportant considering that Corbin was one of the finalists for the Chief’s job. If only that old bastard would just die already.

Making sure his hat was perfectly in place, he smiled at himself in the mirror. The smug self-satisfied smile of a spider watching a juicy fly struggling in its web. He’d called the press to announce that he had broken up one of the city’s most prominent illegal speakeasies. Just the kind of move that would make him stand out from the other candidates for the job of police chief.

Leaving his office he made his way down the stairs in the lobby of police headquarters. As he did he gave his most winning smile to the crowd of reporters waiting at the bottom. Flashbulbs popped and a buzz of voices greeted him as he continued down the stairs. He made sure to stretch his smile even further when he saw that, as per his instructions, his wife was waiting there as well. Sidling up to her he offered his arm and they turned to look down at the reporters. He was preparing to deliver the speech he had carefully crafted for the occasion when a sudden shout interrupted him.

“BARON!” came the shrill call. All eyes turned to look at a petite blonde woman hurrying down the set of stairs opposite the one Corbin had been descending. Her face was alight with a radiant joy as she hurtled toward Baron. Before he could do much as blink she had thrown herself at him, forcing him to catch her. She was short that this meant he was holding her off the floor.

“BARON! I HAVE SUCH WONDERFUL NEWS!” the tiny blonde squealed as she planted kisses all over his face, each one leaving red lipstick marks in their wake. Needless to say, the flashbulbs were erupting again. Corbin’s face was burning bright red but it was nothing compared to the shade that his wife’s had turned.

“I…” he stammered as he finally recognized the woman. She was the singer at Riott’s joint, but he’d never spoken to her before. But the blonde had already seized the initiative in the situation. Looping her arm through Baron’s free one, she turned to look at the reporters.

“Thank you all for coming to our big announcement!” the tiny woman said delightedly to the reporters.

“I-...what? Wait!” Corbin finally managed to say. His right arm gave a sudden violent shake a turning he saw that his wife had violently extricated himself from him.

“Baron and I…” the blonde was saying “...are expecting our first child!” That set the camera’s going again and provoked a hurricane of questions from the reporters. Corbin’s brain was still trying desperately to catch up with so he barely registered as the blonde turned to look at his outraged wife. “Hello!...” she said in a voice that took no notice of his wife’s outraged face “...I’m Baron’s wife, who are you?”

“Y-y-you’re...YOU ARE Baron’s wife?!” Baron’s actual wife stammered in a near apoplectic fury.

“Yeah! Are you his secretary?” the blonde asked as she held up her left hand and proudly displayed a large diamond there.

“His-His-...How DARE YOU?!” Baron’s wife demanded, finally finding her voice.

“Sweetheart-” Baron started to try and explain but his wife shouted over. 

“NO! I don’t want to hear it Baron Corbin!” she shouted. Rounding on the blonde she jabbed a finger in the air. “I AM MRS. BARON CORBIN YOU HOME WRECKER!”

“EXCUSE ME?” the blonde shot back, firing up.

“Ladies! Please!” Baron tried to calm them but he might as well have not been there for all the notice they took.

“Women like you make me sick!” his wife yelled.

“What? Respectable women? Don’t blame me because you’re stuck having affairs because you can’t find a husband!” the blonde shot back.

The situation devolved very quickly from there. The newspapers would carry photos of the two women rolling across the floor in a tangle of flying limbs as Corbin looked on helplessly. Needless to say, after the women had been separated, the questions that came Corbin’s way weren’t the ones he’d been hoping for. 

* * *

“You know for a housewife...she could really scrap…” Liv Morgan said later that night as she held an ice ball wrapped in a cloth to her swollen lip.

“She never stood a chance,” Ruby laughed. Liv was sitting in her lap at one of the tables in the bar. It was a Wednesday so they weren’t open that night. Ruby would have kept it closed in any case until they heard back from Sarah.

“Anything for you,” Liv said with a giggle. She punctuated this statement by leaning in to kiss Ruby quickly on the lips. Ruby laughed at the gesture because she got a tiny taste of Liv’s blood.

“Gross, we need to get you cleaned up before Friday!” Ruby said.

Liv looked as though she were going to say something flirty but she was interrupted by the door banging open. Ruby had her colt revolver up in an instant, just as Liv had produced her tiny holdout gun. But they lowered their weapons when they saw it was Sarah returning. 

Their friend looked decidedly run down. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were torn in many places, and her face was covered in either soot or dirt. She was carrying a shovel over one shoulder and the violin case in the other hand. Wordlessly, she dropped heavily down into the seat opposite Ruby and Liv.

“How did it go?” Ruby asked.

“Good, it’s all done,” Sarah sighed as she rolled her head from side to side.

“What happened!” Liv demanded before she hurried over to the bar. She returned with a damp washcloth which she used to dab at Sarah’s face.

“Oh, just a slight difference in opinion over business practices,” Sarah grunted as she submitted and let Liv clean her. Ruby was forcibly reminded of a tiger or lion with an injury that would only allow one particular keeper to tend to it.

“Anything to do with me seeing half the fire engines in the city rushing past on my way here?” Liv asked.

Sarah leaned back in her chair and didn’t answer for several long moments. Her face broke into a big goofy grin when her eyes met Ruby’s. Turning back to Liv she cleared her throat and said, “Don’t worry about it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For RelentlassHuggerSquad


End file.
